Scrum Goes Beyond Software

PHOENIX, AZ--(Marketwire - September 29, 2010) - Leaders from government, education, and many other industries gathered last weekend at the Scrum Beyond Software event in Phoenix to talk through their toughest project management issues and discover how Scrum could help solve them. What they discovered at this Scrum Alliance-hosted gathering was that every organization can improve the way it works and respond more easily to change with Scrum.

"I heard one of the participants say, 'When folks talk about the wisdom of crowds, this is the crowd they're talking about.' It's amazing what can happen when you get the right people together and empower them to find solutions," said Donna Farmer, newly appointed managing director of the Scrum Alliance.

Those who came to this event each had different ideas to explore, from Scrum in a service environment to Scrum in government to Scrum in a marketing organization.

"... I think Scrum, as a practice, is about adaptation," explained Christopher Tse, a product owner from McGraw Hill. "Every implementation of Scrum in every company, big or small, is slightly different [but has the] same foundational principles. The question is can [these principles] capture a project that's not about software, not about web, not about development."

By the end of the two-day event, the group had devised plans for bringing Scrum to industries beyond software and discussed many issues and topics related to doing so. Individuals and discussion groups also posted blogs and videos based on their discussions, which can be found here: http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/

"I'm taking the values and principles that I learned about Scrum with me to my next endeavor," says outgoing interim director James Cundiff. "Scrum isn't just for software anymore."

About the Scrum Alliance

The Scrum Alliance (http://www.scrumalliance.org) is a not-for-profit, professional membership organization created to promote and share the Scrum framework throughout the world.

About Scrum:

Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework that can be used to help any organization manage complex projects. Projects are broken into a dynamic list of items that can then be estimated and prioritized to provide the greatest return on investment. The priority and even the items themselves can and will change often in response to change. The success of a Scrum project is dependent on self-organizing, cross-functional teams, who have all of the skills and tools necessary to get the work done.